2022 midterm election news as Democrats, Republicans race to November

Stacey Abrams reported a six-figure income from Dream Project Partners, an LLC with virtually no online presence. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Georgia Democratic gubernatorial nominee Stacey Abrams said Wednesday that she supports abortions being conducted up "until the time of birth" in some circumstances.

Offering remarks during a Wednesday appearance on The View, Abrams insisted that abortion is "a decision that should be made between a woman and her doctor, that viability is the metric, and that if a woman’s health or life is in danger, then viability extends until the time of birth."

Abrams did not expound on what constitutes as a woman's life or health being in danger.

"I believe that abortion is a medical decision, not a political decision," she said. "And arbitrary, politically defined timelines are deeply problematic because they ignore the reality of medical and physiological issues."

"For example, a six-week ban tells women they have to make reproductive choices before they know they're pregnant. And that arbitrariness extends into these artificial timelines," Abrams said.

Abrams also declared during her appearance on the show that no one believes "there should not be a limit" on abortion, adding that "the limit should not be made by politicians who don’t understand basic biology or, apparently, basic morality."

A new AARP poll of Alaska voters shows neck-and-neck race between Republican candidates Kelly Tshibaka and incumbent Sen. Lisa Murkowski -- but only after multiple rounds of voting in the state's ranked-choice voting system.

The poll, released Thursday, reflects the ranked choice system, where voters select their top four choices, and if no candidate clears 50% support in the first ballot count, election counters remove the ballots for the least-supported candidate, and consider the second choice on those ballots.

In the first two rounds of counting the AARP poll, no candidate clears 50%, according to the poll.

"In the final round the race becomes a dead heat, finishing at 50% of votes going for Murkowski and 50% for Tshibaka," the AARP poll states.

A similar situation is seen in poll for Alaska's sole House seat, which Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola won in a special election in August -- and the poll suggests a similar dynamic will be at play in November, which saw former Gov. Sarah Palin shut out of the seat.

Though in the first round of counting no candidate in the House race clears 50%, the third round of the poll shows Peltola ultimately winning over Palin. The GOP vote will be split between Palin and Nick Begich.

"In this race, voters overall prefer a Republican candidate, but 60% hold an unfavorable view of former Governor Palin," the AARP poll states.

A New York Times column slammed Sen. Lindsey Graham's abortion bill proposal as "unbelievably cruel" on Wednesday. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

Many Republicans running in this year's midterm elections do not support Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., proposed bill that would limit abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy – or after "the stage at which substantial medical evidence indicates that they are capable of feeling pain."

In June, the Supreme Court, in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, returning power to the states to limit abortion. Following the SCOTUS decision, abortion became one of the focal points of this year's midterm election, as numerous GOP candidates were accused by their Democratic opponents of holding "extreme" views on abortion.

One recent ad from VetVotes and the Senate Majority PAC targeted Arizona Senate candidate Blake Masters for his pro-life stance, and called him "unAmerican."

Read more from Fox News' Aubrie Spady here.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has denied that he would run for president in 2024 (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

Gov. Gavin Newsom, D-Calif., launched eighteen billboards in 7 pro-life states, directing individuals to a website that contains instructions on how to get an abortion in his state of California.

The billboards are running in several states that currently have limitations on abortion, including, Indiana, Mississippi, Ohio, Texas, South Carolina, South Dakota and Oklahoma.

In Texas, some of the billboards read "Texas doesn't own your body. You do," and "Need an abortion? California is here to help." 

"Here is my message to any woman seeking abortion care in these anti-freedom states: Come to California. We will defend your constitutional right to make decisions about your own health. These un-American abortion bans -- many of them without exceptions for rape and incest - are literally killing women. The idea that these Republican politicians are seeking to 'protect life' is a total farce. They are seeking to restrict and control their constituents and take away their freedom," said Newsom.

Following the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and return the power to the states to decide on abortion laws, several pro-life states established further restrictions on abortion, some even banning it completely.

One woman in Allentown, Pennsylvania, said she felt President Biden was divisive and that he did not love the country the way he should. (Fox News Digital)

People in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and Portland, Oregon, shared whether they thought President Biden has united or divided this country.

"Divided it," one Allentown woman told Fox News. "Because he's not doing what he's supposed to do for this country, and I think that he's not really, he doesn't love this country the way he should."

However, another woman, Roxy, said: "He's trying to be a unifier. I just think it's really rough right now. You got to do the best you can."

President Biden's approval rating rose from a low of 36% in July to 45%, driven in part by a sharp increase in Democrat support for Biden (78% up from 65% in July), according to a poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. 

Read more from Fox News' Lisa Bennatan, Hannah Ray Lambert, and Ramiro Vargas here.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer speaks with reporters following a closed-door caucus lunch at the Capitol, July 19, 2022. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is "in trouble" and Democrats are likely to lose the House, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer declared during a private dinner with fellow Democratic senators, according to reports.

Schumer, D-N.Y., and six other Democratic senators were spotted dining at Trattoria Alberto, a swanky Italian restaurant in Washington, on Monday evening, and the group was talking loud enough to be heard by other patrons, according to Punchbowl News. Schumer reportedly expressed confidence that Democrats would keep the Senate come November but said Republicans had a 60% chance of taking the House.

The other Democratic senators at the gathering included Chris Coons of Delaware, Mark Kelly of Arizona, Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, Tom Carper of Delaware, John Hickenlooper of Colorado, and Dick Durbin of Illinois.

Read more from Fox News' Anders Hagstrom here.

Former President Donald Trump will join GOP Senate candidate J.D. Vance in Ohio Saturday.

Trump will travel to Youngstown, Ohio where he will appear with Vance at an event on Sept. 17, 2022.

Vance was endorsed by Trump early in his primary campaign and is running in the Ohio Senate race against Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio., who currently serves in the state's 13th Congressional District.

Sarah Jessica Parker and her husband, Matthew Broderick, will hold a fundraiser at their home in New York City next week for Texas Democratic gubernatorial nominee Beto O'Rourke.

The fundraiser will take place on September 21 with tickets for sponsors costing $5,000 and tickets for co-hosts costing $10,000, according to an invitation for the event shared by Scott Braddock, an editor for Quorom Report.

O'Rourke will face off in November against incumbent GOP Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who has served at the helm of Texas since 2015.

Bolduc and Gov. Sununu embrace in New Hampshire (Fox News)

CONCORD, N.H. – A display of unity at the New Hampshire GOP’s unity breakfast on Thursday morning. 

Retired Army Gen. Don Bolduc — who on Tuesday narrowly captured the Republican Senate nomination in the key general election battleground state in a race that’s one of a handful that may decide if the GOP wins back the chamber’s majority in November’s general election — walked over to Republican Gov. Chris Sununu and gave him a big hug.

Bolduc claimed last year that Sununu was a "communist Chinese sympathizer" and that the Sununu family’s business "supports terrorism."

While Bolduc has walked back those attacks on the popular governor, he continues to criticize Sununu’s policies during the coronavirus pandemic as "executive overreach." 

A few weeks ago, Sununu said on a popular statewide talk-radio program that Bolduc’s "not a serious candidate, he’s really not, and if he were the GOP nominee, I have no doubt we would have a much harder time… He’s kind of a conspiracy theorist-type candidate."

While Sununu tempered those criticisms in recent days, last week ahead of the primary he endorsed Bolduc’s main rival for the nomination, longtime New Hampshire Senate President Chuck Morse. Bolduc ended up edging Morse by a razor thin margin in Tuesday’s primary.

On the eve of the unity breakfast, Bolduc appeared to try and make amends with some of his past rhetoric on the campaign trial.

"A campaign is tough. It’s tough on everybody. We say things in the heat of conversation that we regret later. We hope that we can say we’re sorry for it and people forgive, but that’s not always the case. And I’m no different," Bolduc lamented at a unity fundraiser. "I’m a man who’s fallible. A man who errors. A man who says things that perhaps should be left unsaid."

As Fox News first reported, the Senate Leadership Fund recently announced that it would spend $23 million to buy TV time in the small but crucial battleground state of New Hampshire, as the top super PAC that backs Senate Republicans targets Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan in a crucial race that’s one of a handful that will likely determine if the GOP wins back the chamber’s majority. 

But after former Army Gen. Don Bolduc – a populist, MAGA-style Republican who ran an bare-bones outsider campaign – defeated more mainstream conservative and longtime New Hampshire Senate President Chuck Morse by a razor-thin margin in Tuesday’s GOP U.S. Senate primary, there were questions over whether the group – which is aligned with longtime Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, would honor its reservation. 

That’s because there were concerns from some Republicans in the state and nationally that a primary victory by the retired general, who has severely struggled with fundraising and who had said he supported former President Donald Trump’s unproven claims the 2020 election was “stolen,” would allow Hassan to win re-election.

Two weeks ago, a newly formed super PAC named the White Mountain PAC, which had loose links to McConnell's political orbit, dished out roughly $4 million to run TV commercials in New Hampshire blasting Bolduc for his "crazy ideas." And pro-Democratic groups meddled in the GOP primary, with ads targeting Morse, whom they viewed as a tougher general election GOP contender.

But on Tuesday SLF launched their first ad in New Hampshire, which targets Hassan over her repeated touting of her bipartisan chops in the Senate, her ability to cross party lines to pass legislation, and her spotlighting of her policy differences with President Biden. “Maggie Hassan claims she’s independent,” the narrator in the spot says. “She’s trying to trick you. Because Hassan votes with Joe Biden over 96% of the time.” 

The group told Fox News they're spending $2.3 million to run the new TV commercial this week. But it's still not clear if SLF will honor their entire $23 million reservation through the November election. The SLF’s Democratic counterpart, the Senate Majority PAC, has yet to indicate if or how much they’ll spend to run ads in New Hampshire that boost Hassan or target Bolduc.

Related: Abortion showdown - Hassan targets Bolduc in battleground New Hampshire

Nevada Republican U.S. Senate candidate Adam Laxalt (Bridget Bennett)

In a Thursday press release, GOP Senate nominee in Nevada Adam Laxalt called on his Democratic midterm opponent, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., to oppose the nomination of Gigi B. Sohn to be a Commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

Laxalt claimed Sohn has a history of expressing hostility towards law enforcement officers and conservative speech.

“Catherine Cortez Masto has a responsibility to strongly oppose Biden’s nomination of Gigi Sohn to the FCC. Sohn is an anti-police radical who has publically supported defunding the police and repeatedly promoted social media posts attacking law enforcement. 

“Given the anti-police sentiment in this country and the surging crime rates in our communities, we need leaders who will stand up and fight for the brave men and women who put their lives on the line every day to protect us. Sohn's anti-law enforcement views are dangerous and disqualifying. And that is why the Fraternal Order of Police has come out against her nomination.  

“The choice before Cortez Masto is clear: will she stand with the cop-hating far-left or will she stand with our brave police officers and oppose Sohn’s nomination?”

Laxalt is endorsed by several pro-law enforcement groups in his state, including the Nevada Fraternal Order of Police, Peace Officers Association of the Clark County School District, and Las Vegas Peace Officers Supervisors Association.

An ad from EMILY'S List claims N.H. Senate nominee Don Bolduc, a Republican, supports banning abortion with no exceptions for the life of the mother.

The ad, released Thursday, features a woman who describes complications with her twin pregnancy, and how in order to save her life, she had a procedure.

"I was facing the loss of my children. My husband was facing the loss of his wife and his children. I needed to live," the woman says, before adding that Bolduc "said we should 'rejoice' the decision to let states completely ban abortion with no exception to save the woman's life," the woman says.

"My decision saved my life, and Don Bolduc shouldn't be able to take that away," she adds.

Abortion has become a major midterm elections issue, as Democrats see the GOP as vulnerable and extreme in pushing bans on abortion. Many Republicans who support the Supreme Court's decision overturning Roe v. Wade, including Bolduc, have rejected calls for a federal abortion ban.

The quote in the EMILY'S List ad cites a June 24 speech Bolduc gave, where he criticized SCOTUS "legislating from the bench" before adding that "we got some pretty good decisions out of them, one of them today, why don't we just rejoice that one right now, Roe v. Wade."

"The Supreme Court has already decided that this is a state issue. The states have it. That’s where it needs to be. Women on both sides of the issue will getter a better voice at the state level," Bolduc told Fox News Digital in an interview after declaring his primary victory.

FIRST ON FOX: Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., released the first advertisement for his re-election campaign talking about his upbringing, values, and what that makes him the best choice for the South Carolina Senate seat in the midterm elections this fall.

The ad, labeled "Cotton to Congress," is part of a seven figure ad buy that will air in Columbia, Charleston, and Myrtle Beach media markets. Scott's ad will air for the first time this weekend at the USC v. UGA football game.

"My granddaddy was in the third grade when he stopped going to school, and started picking cotton. He never learned to read or write and grew up in the segregated South," Scott said in the new ad obtained exclusively by Fox News Digital

Read more from Fox News' Aubrie Spady here.

Catch up with the news from New Hampshire's primary, and other updates from Wednesday's midterm election live blog on Fox News Digital.

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